September 1966

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Features

Computer Logic and Memory

A large modern computer can contain nearly half a million switching elements and 10 million high-speed memory elements. They operate with the simplest of all logics: the binary logic based on 0 and 1

By David C. Evans

Computer Inputs and Outputs

The input-output system of a computer consists of the programs and devices that allow the machine and its user to communicate. Recently graphical devices for this purpose have evolved rapidly

By Ivan E. Sutherland

System Analysis and Programming

The process of stating a problem in a language that is acceptable to a computer is primarily intuitive rather than formal. A specific example of the process is given

By Christopher Strachey

Time-Sharing on Computers

This technique, whereby a computer serves a large number of people at once, does more than save time and money. It sets up a dialogue between user and machine and allows communication among users

By F. J. Corbat and R. M. Fano

The Transmission of Computer Data

Computer users are sending an increasing volume of digital data over the nation's electrical communication network. To transmit such data efficiently at high speed, the network is being modified

By John R. Pierce

The Uses of Computers in Science

The main impact of the computer on science promises to come not in its role as a powerful research instrument but rather as an active participant in the development of scientific theories

By Anthony G. Oettinger

The Uses of Computers in Technology

In most technological applications computers have been used to execute a specific program of instructions. Now they are beginning to fulfill their promise of interacting directly with men in engineering design

By Steven Anson Coons

The Uses of Computers in Organizations

As computer systems take up more tasks in human organizations they come to resemble the organizations themselves. Ultimately they will serve the organization's key functions of communication and control

By Martin Greenberger

The Uses of Computers in Education

The huge information-processing capacities of computers make it possible to use them to adapt mechanical teaching routines to the needs and the past performance of the individual student

By Patrick Suppes

Information Storage and Retrieval

Computers and various means of storing information in highly reduced form are making libraries more efficient, but the goal of providing instant access to almost everything ever published remains distant

By Ben-Ami Lipetz

Artificial Intelligence

Can a machine be made to exhibit intelligence? An affirmative answer is indicated by programs that enable a computer to do such things as set up goals, make plans, consider hypotheses and recognize analogies

By Marvin L. Minsky

Departments

50 and 100 Years Ago: September 1966

Science and the Citizen: September 1966

Letters

Letters to the Editors, September 1966

Recommended

Books

Mathematical Recreation

Mathematical Games

Amateur Scientist

The Amateur Scientist

Departments

The Authors

Bibliography

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